Page 128 of A Vow of Wrath and Ruin

I took a drag. “She thought it was, but I’m not convinced. That’s why we need your help.”

“I’ll send word to my scouts.” Her face was awash with worry.

“Thank you,” I said, blowing smoke into the air. “I don’t think it’s him, but better to know for sure than to assume.”

She nodded before disappearing into a cloud of smoke.

I sank into the plush velvet couch. “I can’t wait to get back to the Woodlands.” My heart skipped a beat thinking about seeing Tharan again.

“Me too,” Amolie said, wiping her hands on her skirt. “Roderick sent word… they have news.”

I arched a brow. “Do you think they found something?”

“I hope so.”

I didn’t dare to hope we’d all found something useful. Life didn’t work out that way for me.

“I want to give Baylis one more day to rest. We’ll leave in the morning. Amolie, are you coming with us or going to Vantris first?”

“I had planned to go with you.”

“Great. Did your research turn up anything useful on necromancy?”

“Yes. It seems there was a sect of witches who used sacrifices to bring someone back. Blood for blood, they called it. But you had to sacrifice someone of equal or greater power to the person you were bringing back.”

“Hmmm,” I scrunched my nose at her.

“There’s more,” she said. “Apparently, the elven mages found a way to replace the soul of one with another.”

“Like possession?”

“Perhaps. The book was a thousand years old, and the mage order no longer exists.”

“Blink of an eye for an elf. Maybe they went into hiding.”

“Or maybe Arendir killed them as he was known to do to orders who displeased him.”

I grimaced. “The elves are brutal.”

“It is easy to become numb to mortality when you will never have to face it.”

“I don’t want to think about that. Let’s focus on what wecando. Once we’re all back together, it will be easier to plan.”

Amolie sipped her tea.

“You’re right.”

I gazed out the window. The sun disappeared over the horizon and swathes of pink and orange mixed with the dark of night. Days were so short in winter, but that was fine with me. Ipreferred the darkness. I was safe in the darkness. It is the light I feared. True evil revels in the light.

With my sister slumbering upstairs, the Hunt guarding the door, and Amolie entrenched in a book, my eyes became heavy, and my body relaxed. Sleep claimed me.

The slamming of a door woke me. “Lady Baylis!” Finneas’s frantic voice echoed through the empty townhome. How long had I been asleep? Someone placed a blanket over me, and the fire turned to embers. Trying to orient myself, I looked out the window where a full moon cast the city in a silver light. It must have been well past midnight.

Throwing off my blanket, I moved to the foyer, where a worried Finneas paced back and forth. His goat eyes widened when he saw me. “Lady Aelia, I was doing my night checks, and when I went to check on Baylis, her bed was empty.” His brows knitted with concern. “I don’t know how she could have gotten out. There are guards posted at every door.”

The fog of sleep still clouded my mind. What was Baylis up to? An inkling in the back of mind warned me it wasn’t good. Either she had been taken or she was up to something, and my gut told me it was the latter.

“I’ll go after her.” Grabbing my cloak, I headed out into the night. The chill of dread crept down my spine. Clotho’s words echoed through my head. “Someone close to you will betray you.” But was this a betrayal, or was this some kind of retribution from the queen of the Undersea? A sister for a sister. That would make sense. The sylph loved to enact revenge they saw as “fair.” Killing my sister would be fitting.

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